Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster-American Folk Park, Omagh

Saturday, 18 October 2008

The focus of the Literature of Irish Exile Autumn School, now in its ninth year, remains on how emigrants from Ireland have given expression in words to feelings of exile. Part of the programme will take place in the stimulating setting of the Outdoor Museum of the Ulster-American Folk Park. The rest will be in the warmth of the library of the Centre for Migration Studies. The aim is to give members of the public a friendly opportunity to meet and mix with experts on some of the less well-known aspects of 'exile' in Irish literature.

Speakers

Karen Corrigan is Professor of Linguistics and English Language at Newcastle University. She has been researching the interaction between Irish, English and Early Modern varieties of English/Scots in Ireland. Additionally, she has been engaged in exploring the interrelationship between language and migration to the United States during the post-famine period in Ireland.

Her new research project, which is sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, focuses on Northern Irish English (NIrE). Like Welsh English and Highland English in Scotland, it was initially learned as a second language. Professor Corrigan’s talk will demonstrate that this scenario arose from the region’s colonization by speakers of English/Scots dialects, beginning in the Middle Ages & reaching a peak during what is termed ‘The Plantation Period’ of Irish history.

If you are interested in learning more about the migration of language and why the peoples of Northern Ireland speak the way they do, Professor Corrigan’s lecture is for you.

Patrick Fitzgerald is Lecturer and Development Officer at the Centre for Migration Studies and Brian Lambkin is Director of the Centre for Migration Studies. Their presentations in the afternoon session are designed to introduce the two sections of illustrations in Migration in Irish History, 1607-2007 (Palgrave Macmillan) due to be published in October 2008